


Born To Be Bulletproof

by BrokenWingedTenshi



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alpha Damian Wayne, Angry Alya Césaire, Awesome Nino Lahiffe, Badass Alya Césaire, Badass Kagami Tsurugi, Badass Luka Couffaine, Chloé Bourgeois Needs a Hug, Damian Wayne Feels, Damian Wayne is Robin, Damian Wayne-centric, F/F, F/M, Good Chloé Bourgeois, Hurt Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Jason Todd Deserves Better, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason is a Dork, Lesbian Chloé Bourgeois, Lesbian Kagami Tsurugi, M/M, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Jason Todd Friendship, Nino Lahiffe Is So Done, Nino Lahiffe Knows, Past Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Past Jason Todd & Marinette, Protective Alya Césaire, Protective Kagami Tsurugi, Protective Luka Couffaine, Resurrected Jason Todd, Strong Marinette Dupain-Cheng, We Are All Alya Césaire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:27:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27523024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenWingedTenshi/pseuds/BrokenWingedTenshi
Summary: Being a demi-kwami was always strange. The laws of the world were so deeply ingrained in their bones their very beings could not help but obey. But the world was a strange place, and they did not always understand those rules.Marinette and her friends were born to be what they had become. But there was still so much they did not- could not- know. Like why certain people drew them so completely they could not help but keep watch over them. Or how they knew, despite how no being should know, the secrets of people they have barely known.Or why, for all the people they've gotten so attached to over the years, it is Damian Wayne who can see them when no one else ever could.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois & Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois/Kagami Tsurugi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne
Comments: 64
Kudos: 196





	1. Why Are We

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Jae's Maribat Mini's](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27027628) by [jaebirdbluetheawesome (GreyAreaSystem)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyAreaSystem/pseuds/jaebirdbluetheawesome). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of a demi-kwami journey

At first, the world was dark. It was comforting, she thought, to float in the warm darkness where she was just present. Just existing. No fear, or responsibility, or expectation. And perhaps that was why she could not stay here.

When she awoke, she was laying on the cold ground of some abandoned apartment building. Not like that mattered much, she barely felt the cold. It was more a little prickle at the back of her mind that told her it was chilled than her actually feeling or registering it. And it was easy to get outside. The doorway was wide open.

Maybe if she'd looked back she would've seen the tarp in the corner, covering a lump with black ballet flats sticking out, the bottoms painted a pastel pink with a stylized M printed neatly in the middle. But she didn't look back. Only forward, out at the world where the city was just the same as she'd left it.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she had a sneaking suspicion that something was not right. But she ignored it for the moment. Looking around, she knew vaguely where she was. It didn't take long to make her way to her parents' bakery. Except . . . It was closed for some reason.

Shrugging her shoulders at the anomaly, she went around the house and made to go through the entrance that would lead straight to the apartment. That was locked, and she had lost her purse somewhere, so she climbed through a window, sighing with the relief of being home.

She headed up the stairs at an easy pace, jogging through the familiar halls. She heard sniffing coming from her parents'room though, and couldn't help but look in. On the bed, her Maman was curled into her father's side, sobbing. Holding her tight, her father was crying as well, though his tears were less conspicuous. She suspected to give her mother time to break down without worrying about him.

She stepped inside, ignorant of the board that should have creaked under her weight, or the edge of the door she thought she barely missed.

"Maman-"

Her mother huddled further into her father's side.

"I just can't believe it. I . . . I can't bring myself to believe things were so terrible she didn't come home."

She froze, her father replying in a voice they shook with barely concealed pain.

"I know. But I'm sure she's fine. We'll find her soon honey. We have to."

The sound of someone clicking their tongue sounded behind her, and she turned to see two girls standing by the door. One dressed in yellow and black, blue eyes fixed on her parents with a pitying gaze.

"How naive the people of the city can be when they want to be."

The girl in orange and white, shook her head, unable or unwilling to look at the crying couple on the bed.

"Yeah, but it can't be helped. You know as well as I do the decision was made far before this ever came to pass."

The blonde in all her yellow shook her head back, a frown adorning her lips.

"I know Alya. But it's . . . Still unbearably sad."

"What are you doing in my house?"

Two sets of eyes turned to the girl in the middle of the room. The aforementioned 'Alya' spoke.

"We've come to collect you."

"Collect me? I'm not going anywhere. This is my home."

The blonde shook her head.

"Was your home. I'm sorry, but you can't be here. It's against the rules, and if you don't leave on your own it won't be pleasant for any of us."

The girl shook her head. Her voice shook as she spoke.

"No . . . you two better leave . . . I'll call the police. This is breaking and entering."

'Alya' snorted softly.

"Yeah, that was my reaction too . . . Go ahead. Try it."

The girl didn't seem to take well to her tone of voice and darted over to the phone in her parents' room. She was vaguely startled by her speed, though she tried to push away her mounting distress, and the realization that was slowly dawning as her fingers passed right through the phone. She looked at her hand in growing horror, her lip quivering as she put together the pieces she had been subconsciously ignoring.

  1. She passed right through the phone, as if she weren't even there after darting over at breakneck speed.
  2. Her parents hadn't acknowledged her or the other girls in the room, like they couldn't hear them talking.
  3. She hadn't missed that door. She'd clipped it and hadn't even felt it.
  4. No one on the street had so much as looked her way. It was like she wasn't even there.
  5. She hadn't felt the chill outside, though everyone else was beginning to bundle up against the chill of autumn.
  6. She hadn't needed to push aside the covering she'd found to keep herself warm last night.
  7. In the warehouse . . . The body she'd ignored in her peripheral vision was wearing her shoes, complete with her signature M.



The pieces started to fit together, and she sank to the floor with a frustrated yell as her new comrades stood and watched her with pitying gazes.

Because Marinette Dupain-Cheng was dead.

~~~~~

"So I'm what? A ghost?"

The place she found herself in was comfortable. A nice hotel that was closed down years ago. Still, everything looked to be in good shape. The beds were covered with colorful spreads and matching pillows, the chairs perfectly placed and comfortable, just waiting for someone to need a cat nap. Chloe looked at her with a soft chuckle, her mask and colorful suit discarded for stylish jeans and a powder blue blouse.

"Not exactly. You're one of us- what's called a demi-kwami in the supernatural world. Think of it kind of like the greek demigods, but not mortal. We were conceived at perfect moments throughout the universe's grand plan, and subsequently our destinies became this. We were quite literally born to die and become what we are now."

Marinette could feel the truth of it through her whole being, swaying sightly as memories crashed down on her about why she was so different. Why she got to do certain things. Why she couldn't feel certain things or was drawn towards certain people or places as though she were meant to be there just then.

Her first bike, when she fell and scraped her knee so badly she bled all over her jeans but it had healed by the time her parents had come. When she had gone to her first real party and hadn't for the life of her been able to drink enough to make herself feel a buzz. When she'd first met Adrien Agreste . . . She shook that thought off, huffing softly.

"So if we're demigods . . . What do we do?"

A big grin slid across Chloe's lips.

"I'm so glad you asked my dear Ladybug."

~~~~~

It was so strange, what Marinette's life became after that. She was all at once the same person she had always been and someone entirely different. Or maybe she was something in between. Not that it mattered. The powers that be had let her remain in Paris for another twenty years before she she her friends had to leave.

In that time, her parents had found her body and buried their daughter, slowly learning to move on with their lives. About seven years after her death, she ushered a little girl to their doorstep. She found that some mortals could hear her, though they registered it as more of an uncanny feeling they needed to do something than an actual voice. So Marinette ushered six year old Bridgette to the door of her parents' bakery. She was small, dirty and had nowhere to go. But she had the biggest blue eyes and the purest heart Marinette had ever witnessed.

With help from Bridgette, who they took in almost immediately and adopted soon after, her parents were healing. By the time Brigette was nineteen, she lived a fairly normal life. One eerily similar to Marinette's. She had three close friends and was in love with a blonde who wouldn't give her the time of day till she stopped looking for his attention. Then, Felix was all about Brigette. Marinette had a feeling they would be alright.

Roland hadn't wanted another granddaughter after Marinette's untimely death, but eventually he took to her like a fish to water. She was slowly pulling him into their century. Gina had always loved Brigette, right from the very start. And perhaps it was that common ground that led her to Roland again. Something Marinette had never managed.

And when it was finally time to go?

Marinette had seen all she had wanted to. She had seen the resolution of Brigette and Felix's love troubles, when they finally got together. They fought a bit, but she was sure that if they worked at it, they could make each other very happy. By the same token she had watched her grandparents pass from this world, happy to be together at the very end. She had watched her parents grow older, hiring help in the bakery and beginning to think of retirement. Her classmates were all married and having children, going about their lives and careers. And truly, by this point it was more like she was watching strangers living out they're lives. She was happy to go.

She was ready to move on with her friends, to parts unknown.

~~~~~

"THIS WAS A BAD IDEAAAAAAAA!"

Damian Wayne looked up to the sky, finding a girl clad in red and black, including a black domino mask falling from the sky. And she was falling _fast_.

He made a very undignified noise as he jumped out of the way. He tensed, waiting for the crunch that would signify the end of her life as she hit the ground.

Except, it never came.

"Ooh, that looked like it hurt."

A blonde lowered herself down beside the girl in red, yellow and black costume a bit more sophisticated than her red counterpart, who was simply covered head to toe in black and burgundy armored kevlar, crimson spandex peeking through as she moved, sitting up. The blonde flicked her wrist and what looked like a striped spinning top zipped down into her hand.

Another girl chuckled from behind him, and he whipped around. This one was dressed in orange and white that looked like it was fur with auburn hair. She shook her head at them.

"This is why you were made to be bulletproof. Because you two pull stupid stunts that would turn mortals into street pancakes."

Bulletproof??? Mortals??? Wha-

"I'm never doing that again!"

The girl in red exclaimed, standing and rolling her shoulders with a little pout.

The blonde just chuckled.

"Yeah, so you say. We all know you'll be jumping off some other tower with no landing plan in like- not even two hours."

"True." The orange girl snorted.

Damian had finally had enough of this mysterious situation.

"Excuse me, but _what the fuck_ just happened?"

All three girls jumped, turning to him with wide eyes. The girl in red took a step forward.

"Wait, you- . . . _You can **see** us_!?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta, we die like Jason Todd


	2. A Rose By Any Other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian learns about the Demi-kwami.  
> Jason has royally fucked up.  
> The girls are pissed.

It was completely by accident the first time that Damian had met Ladybug, Fox and Bee (they would give him no other names to call them), but it was entirely on purpose when he met them again. They were strange girls, always doing something that would kill any normal mortal. He thought perhaps they did it to distract themselves, for some days they spoke with a weariness that was entirely too heavy for people who looked only his age. But, he supposed, that was a part of the burden they carried as non-mortals.

He "just so happened" to be strolling past a tower he'd found they frequented whilst scouting the city at night, when Bee darted past him.

"Hi Damian!"

He went to wave, but Fox used his shoulders as a springboard and he had to balance himself. Ladybug darted under his arm, launched over Fox and pounced on Bee with a victorious yell. Fox just chuckled softly, leaning back against a building as Bee and Ladybug stood and dusted themselves off. Ladybug turned to him with a bit of surprise in her expression before she grinned brightly.

"Oh. Hey Damian, what's up?"

He dusted off his sleeve with a soft shake of his head.

"I simply couldn't help but notice three blobs of rapidly moving color on my stroll. I thought it only polite to greet you seeing as we are acquainted."

Bee chuckled and pretended to swoon, leaning on Ladybug.

"You hear that Bug? He missed us.~"

Ladybug chuckled, shoving her playfully and walking over to face him properly.

"Sorry about her, Fox likes to say I'm the dramatic, but really it's Bee over there. It's nice to see you again."

Damian nodded once.

"Likewise. I was wondering, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, do you three eat physical food like us mortals, or do your diets consist of other things?"

Fox looked their way with a lazy grin.

"Well, in olden times we Demi's would eat the sacrifices to our godly patrons seeing as how they're a part of us. But these days we can eat regular mortal food, yes. Only if it's offered to us, which is rare. We don't necessarily require it, but it's nice to have someone show appreciation for our help now and again."

He arched a brow slightly, though his face didn't show much other than that.

"For your help?"

Ladybug snickered a bit beside him.

"Yes, we act as a sort of guiding force in certain areas to mortals. Based on what they're currently in need of, regular mortals can only hear one or two of us, not that they know they're hearing us. And none of them can ever see us. Our voices to them are more like an acute need to do a specific task. Usually, they're quite receptive. And occasionally, someone a bit closer to the border of life and death, whether because they're close to their own death or because they're frequently around either new life or frequent death, will register our presence and thank us with gifts or sacrifices."

Damian just nodded once.

"Well then- . . . I have a proposal."

Bee wiggled her brows and leaned back next to Fox.

"No need. You have our blessing to marry Bug."

Ladybug made a sound that was something akin to choking, and Damian just rolled his eyes.

"Not that kind of proposal. Admittedly, I'm curious about you three. If you will answer my questions, I will offer you sacrifices."

Fox arched an auburn brow above her mask.

"You don't even know what we like."

Damian pursed his lips for a moment.

"I promise I've done worse than acquire whatever it is you eat."

Bee just rolled her eyes.

"Ignore her. She likes rabbits and strawberry macarons. Ladybug likes chocolate chip cookies and aphids. A jar of those should do for several meals for her. I myself am a fan of honey cakes and azaleas. I'm a vegetarian."

Damian just nodded and clasped his hands behind his back.

"Well then, I'll see you for lunch at noon. Do you know where Wayne Manor is?"

Fox just scoffed.

"It's pretty hard to miss."

He's was probably going to regret this.

~~~~~

Jason was having a normal day. Or as normal as his days ever got. Wake up and have breakfast, thank Alfred because he's the only person Jason has ever been afraid of and he shuddered to think what he might do should Jason forget his manners. Leave the house in his signature leather jacket, go check in on the street kids and bring them something they can use (and maybe some toys and treats that he 'has no idea how they got into his stuff'). Collect intel while scoping out the businesses in his territory. Check out any new businesses inside or on his borders. Walk past that tower he goes past every day out of a habit he has no idea why he picked up. Home in time to read a few chapters of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice before lunch.

Usually Damian was at school when Jason got home, but seeing as Bruce had let him skip a grade he was here. The funny thing was . . . He was carrying a sack . . . And it was _moving_. Which probably meant that Damian had smuggled in another small animal. Jason scoffed.

"Another new pet?"

Damian paused, looked him right in the eyes and answered in the most deadpan voice,

"Actually, it's a live sacrifice to a fox god who looks like a teenager girl I've invited for lunch."

Jason just blinked at him. Once. Twice. Then he decided that was too weird a statement and he wasn't going to touch it with a ten foot pole. He just turned around and left. Oddly enough, he thought he heard feminine giggling.

~~~~~

"So wait, you're demigods."

Bee nodded.

"But you aren't the children of Gods."

Bug shook her head.

"Instead, you died and ancient Gods tied to specific ideals bound your souls to their ideals and made you immortal. That effectively bound you to them as well, and because they didn't want to call you hosts or successors they call you their offspring. Is that right?"

Fox nodded her head, biting into the rabbit he'd offered to her as a sacrifice. Damian just ran a hand back through his hair

" . . . And I thought _my_ family was complicated."

Bug chuckled softly.

"Oh, this isn't even the complicated part."

He looked a bit taken aback, but no sooner had Marinette blinked than the expression was gone.

"There's more."

Bee took a delicate bite of a honey cake and hummed softly.

"Of course there is. We haven't covered powers, the magical girl sequences, the basis of our immortality, the use of true names, our connection to the fabric of spacetime-"

Damian waved his hands about to stop her.

"Okay, I get it. We've barely covered the basics . . . Can I ask you ladies if we could make this a regular arrangement then?"

The girls nodded, and they resumed chatting, mostly about cities where the girls had been. It was fascinating to hear about. Apparently Fox and Bee had been around quite a long time. Bug was younger, like a little sister. She'd been around for almost a century in her current state, but it was barely the blink of an eye for them.

How strange. But hey; he'd seen families far worse off.

~~~~~

Damian wasn't entirely sure what happened. One moment they were discussing the difference between foods Americans had adopted from other cultures and the same foods made my natives to that culture, and the next moment Bug's eyes had glossed over and she stood abruptly, looking as though she was in a trance. He thought he could hear someone whispering, but the sudden breeze that whipped her hair about her face as it surrounded her drowned out any voice Damian may have thought he heard.

Bug walked out into the hall, and Damian scrambled to follow her, Fox and Bee hot on his tail. She didn't go far. In fact, she never left the manor. She walked down the hall, took a left, moved three doors down and opened the one on her left. When Damian walked in, Bug was on her knees bowing, a red light shining about her, outlining her form. And standing in front of her, toxic green eyes wide, was Jason Peter Todd.

Fox and Bee froze before the blonde hissed out a question that made Damian freeze.

"What the fuck are you doing here, and why do you reek of Lazarus?"

Jason looked up, though he just stared helplessly at Damian. The former al Ghul turned to Bee with furrowed brows. The wind was still whipping around violently, but he didn't think it would've drowned out her voice.

"I don't think he can see you."

Jason looked even more confused by the moment. Meanwhile, Fox knelt beside Bug, an urgent look on her face.

"Tell him to let her go!"

Damian looked to his brother.

"You have to let her go Jason!"

The older man just looked to the girl on the floor, eyes desperate and wild.

"I- . . . I can't! I don't know how!"

Damian bristled.

"Well what the hell did you do!?"

Bee stared at Jason, eyes full of hatred.

" . . . He used her true name."

The wind grew in intensity, throwing Fox back away from Bug and centering on the kneeling brunette. It condensed further and further, lifting her up until she was standing, and the winds converged on her neck. A bright light flashed, and when it died down, there stood Bug. Gone were her supersuit and mast. Instead, she stood barefoot, a white dress swishing about her knees and a golden collar around her neck, inscribed with runes. She turned to looked at them, dark hair freed from the usual two french braids falling past her shoulders, blue eyes filled with burning hatred as she zeroed in on Jason, spitting her words like acid.

"Hello . . . Master."


	3. The Best Worst Way To Meet Your Future Daughter-In-Law

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of explanation  
> A bit of confusion
> 
> Not necessarily in that order

To be completely honest, Bruce had . . . No idea whatsoever what his sons were yelling at each other about. Really, he was so used to it that he barely registered it was happening until Jason came hurtling down the stairs with Damian right behind wielding a knife. On their heels, a girl strolled in, a white summer dress swishing around her despite the fact that it was autumn in Gotham. Her feet were bare, and dark hair fell around her shoulders, what looked like a collar inscribed with symbols around her neck. On her wrists, those same symbols looked like they were moving across her skin in black ink. He couldn't make out exactly what they were, but she didn't seem to notice them at all. She just watched his sons chase each other around. At least until Jason yelled.

"Pixie, help!"

In a flash, she was holding Damian back, her other hand impaled on his knife. Her blood dripped down, and no one moved. She stared Damian right in the eyes, his wide with surprise and hers trying to be reassuring. Jason snapped out of it first.

"Oh my God, Pixie I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for you to do that!"

She sighed softly, pulling her hand all the way off in one swift movement, sitting at the table with her hand held out in front of her. She didn't seem too terribly concerned, holding the other hand over her injury and shutting her eyes. It took a moment, but red light began to shine through her blood, and as she pulled her uninjured hand further away, the injury closed right before their eyes. Once again, the room was rendered speechless. Bruce turned a harsh gaze to his sons.

"Explain . . . Now."

In the ever so eloquent words of Jason Todd, they fucked up.

~~~~~

"So what you're telling me is that Damian befriended three teenage demigods that no one can see, brought them home for lunch and was interrupted when Jason for some reason, somehow accidentally used her true name to bind her into servitude?"

Damian and Jason looked at each other and nodded, turning to face him. Jason's eyes widened a little.

"Yeah, that's about the gist of it."

Bruce just set his fingers to his temples.

" . . . I can already feel the headache coming on."

"I can help you with that-"

They all started a bit, turning to look at the girl in the doorway. Her blue expression was slightly indifferent, though he could see the concern sparking in her eyes. So she was trying to isolate. That made sense. She'd been forcibly bound after coming to a place where she thought she was safe. Bruce softened a bit, looking over the girl.

"That's alright. I don't want to cause you any trouble. Besides, it's not your fault."

She shook her head, stepping inside.

"I insist Monsieur Wayne."

The moment her fingers eased across his temples, his headache all but vanished, after which she stepped back and moved to stand behind Jason. Bruce sent her a gentle smile.

"Thank you . . . Now that you're here, what do you make of all this?"

She looked a bit startled to be asked, but thought about it for a moment.

"Mm . . . I suppose the situation can't really be helped. I don't know how to undo this kind of binding. Usually there's some sort of intent when summoning a demi, but it doesn't seem like Master did this on purpose, which means there was no intent or wish to fulfill. So while he'd have to be the one to release me, I don't know what would need to happen prior to that."

Damian tensed, eyes narrowing.

"What if I just killed him."

The girl shook her head.

"I'd be bound for a lengthy number of years to serve the family left behind."

Jason bristled, blood running cold

". . . Blood family?"

Much to his horror, she nodded.

"Yes, that is usually the case. However, in extenuating circumstances such as removal from the blood family or betrayal by them it really just depends on who Master considers family."

Bruce pursed his lips, blue eyes narrowing.

"Why do you keep calling Jason Master?"

She just blinked baby blues right back at him.

" . . . Because I haven't been instructed to call him anything else? I'm bound to follow his orders, and as such the default term is Master until I'm ordered otherwise. Disobeying . . . Let's just say it wouldn't be a pleasant experience. For me or anyone else."

Her eyes flickered pointedly to a spot right behind Bruce and above his head, the corner of her lips twitching upward slightly.

" . . . Are your friends here?"

The girl froze, but nodded slowly. Bruce felt the need to question her again.

"Is there any way they could be visible and/or audible to us?"

The girl tensed, eyes narrowing and stance shifting to something more aggressive.

"To my knowledge that would happen only if they were bound to a human, sir."

He sighed softly. This was going to take some time then.

"Will you tell us if they have anything to contribute to the conversation?"

She just pursed her lips, nodding.

This was really going to be a long day.

~~~~~

Bug seemed to be essentially glued to Jason's side for the first half of the day, and he found her to be quite helpful. Still, by the time they got home he had ordered her to just call him Jason and given her free reign to wander the manor. And the first thing she did? Was to find Damian.

Which was all well and good, but her friends were needed elsewhere. They still had a responsibility. So they went on their way with a promise to come back to check on her later in the week. So really, Damian was the only person she was comfortable around.

That was where Bruce found her when he went looking for Damian for dinner. Sitting in the living room where he was teaching her how to play some card game. War if he remembered correctly. She seemed to be having fun, eyes shining with mirth and even a real smile. She looked like she was having fun. She the way Damian looked at her was just so . . . soft. Fond, even.

Sighing softly, he decided to give them a few more minutes. Jason had already shaken them up, though it might've been for the better. Maybe they could go around together and be normal teenagers for a while. Hopefully they could find some way to give her friends that chance too.

For now though, Bruce was content to let the two of them spend their time here, together, just enjoying each other's company until he could give her the chance to flourish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a bit of fluff at the end to tide y'all over until next chapter.


	4. Lazarus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The culprit has a plan  
> The Bug has questions  
> The humans are just confused

It was strangely satisfying, the man thought, to see the bug bound to the same fate she'd left him to. To serve the lesser being known as human. To be forced back into their magic scarce, miserable plain of existence. To be shackled like a slave.

A dark chuckle passed his lips, watching the hatred in her eyes as she looked into the boy's green ones. A shade they should both know far too well. Lazarus green. Toxic, distracting, coveted, revolting Lazarus green. The same color, he reflected, as the love she had lost all those years ago. But then, perhaps that was why they looked like that.

How beautiful she had looked, he mused, screaming in pain and anguish as tar black spread through her skin, tinting her veins, lips, and the tips of her fingers. Eyes a searing, dangerous red and teeth lengthening until they could be called daggers. Navy blue had flown around her in a breeze that whipped through that barren cavern back in Pakistan. She had been a goddess. He imagined, for a moment, what it must feel like to go from the living embodiment of life and death . . . to the pitiful slave of the product of your wrath.

He smiled, long, sharp incisors shining dangerously in the low light at he darted off into the night.

Ah yes, revenge was sweet. It was worth it to whisper the temptation into that filthy wretch's ear. To whisper her name so softly, not that the mortal would ever know what he'd been given.

It was good, he thought, to be the mastermind.

~~~~~

Huffing softly, Damian sat in the garden with his dog Titus at his feet. He was trying to soft through some things about the past two weeks with his demi friend that he wasn't sure how to explain. Like how Jason seemed to gravitate towards Bug instinctively. Always staying close, hovering within hearing distance, though he didn't think she'd noticed yet.

So far, he was drawing a blank as to what has possessed his brother. Not that it was a bad thing, but it made him feel . . . untrustworthy. Like Jason thought he was going to hurt Bug the moment he left the room. He was always in earshot, and once or twice he'd staggered into a doorway or a wall focusing too hard on what she was talking about.

It brought a strange expression to her face. Her lips tilted upwards sightly in an almost smile, though her eyes were unbearably sad. He always looked away when she looked like that. It made his chest hurt. He didn't understand that either. None of it made very much sense. He decided that perhaps Tim could help him, resolving to ask him.

Ruffling Titus's fur, Damian stood and nudged the dog lightly.

"Come on bud, let's go bother Tim."

Titus needed no further prompting.

He knew there was a reason he loved his dog.

~~~~~

Sitting in the living room, Marinette stared right into Jason's eyes. A color she knew too well to be able to mistake it. A spirit in them that made her heart ache with the familiar pain of loss. How she'd missed that color. Not that it mattered very much. He wouldn't know her anymore. She was too familiar with the cycles and rules of reincarnation to pretend he would have any idea who she was.

Still, she knew they hadn't always been that shade. She knew that at some point, Jason's eyes had been a breathtaking blue. Blue, like the morning sky when the day was full of promise and the world began to stir from its slumber. And of course, she also knew what had prompted the change.

"So who dropped you in?"

Jason started, not expecting her to speak after the long silence while she'd pinned him in place with mysterious midnight eyes. Slight color flooded his cheeks, and he gulped.

"Beg your pardon?"

She sighed heavily, though her expression softened just for a moment. If he hadn't been watching her with the same intensity as she watched him with, he would've missed it.

"The Lazarus pit. Who dropped you in? I know very well that you are not currently supposed to be on this plain of existence."

Jason's eyes flickered to his hands for a moment, clasped in his lap before he once again met her eyes.

" . . . Talia al Ghul ordered my exposure to the pits . . . After I died, she took my body to Nanda Parvati in-"

"Pakistan."

Her breath caught in her throat, and he almost could've sworn he saw tears in her eyes. But again, the expression was gone before he could really be sure it was there at all.

"Yes . . . She wanted to use me as a weapon against Bruce. So she dropped my beaten corpse into that green shit and left me there. After that, it gets a little hazy. I'm missing a good chunk of time, but next thing I know I'm in Gotham on orders to kill the Batman himself. Turns out the big bad hero of Gotham City was Talia's baby daddy."

Bug- _Marinette Tikki Des Cieux_ \- he remembered, chuckled softly. And the way her eyes softened did funny things to his insides. The way she smiled made him want to smile too.

"Of course it would be an al Ghul. They've coveted creation magic for as long as anyone knows. Not that it ever really did them much good."

Jason shook his head, leaning back in his chair.

"Yeah. It's kind of ridiculous because about a year later she dropped her kid off with the bat herself."

She repeated that little chuckle, and his eyes shone in a way she remembered too well. She shook her head, turning her eyes to her knees.

" . . . I'm sorry."

Jason's brows furrowed, and he arched one in confusion.

"For what?"

She sighed softly, finally meeting his eyes again.

"You never would've had to go through all that if not for me . . . The pit in Pakistan was my fault . . . I made it."

Of course they were. Why couldn't he ever meet someone normal?

~~~~~

It was a bit later in the day, but Marinette sat in her same spot. Bruce Wayne sat across from her now, and she kept her eyes planted firmly on her hands, which twisted in the skirt of her dress almost violently. Jason stood off behind him, and Damian and their other brother Tim sat on the couch off to her left, facing the cozy fire in the Gotham fall. Bruce heaved a tired sigh.

"Did you create the Lazarus Pit in Nanda Parbat?"

Marinette swallowed thickly, looking up. She nodded once.

"I did."

Bruce looked at her eyes, looking for anything that might give him an answer to his next question.

" . . . Why?"

Marinette snorted softly, turning her eyes to the fire. "Well that's easy . . . " She returned her eyes to Bruce, filled with tears with a sad smile across her lips. "Because I was in love."

Bruce steeled himself against the show of emotion.

"Explain that to me."

She sighed softly, a single tear falling down her cheek and she recalled, swallowing again.

" . . . His name was Adrien Agreste. And like Damian, he could see me. The only difference was that he could also touch me. It was his love language. A touch on the shoulder to tell me he was there. A hand on my waist to show support. A finger over my jaw for want . . . Except there were some things that we could never talk about. Whether because of magic or our own hesitance I never did find out. He was breathtakingly human. Soft and warm and alive. Vibrant like no one I'd ever met before . . . And Ra's al Ghul took him from me."

She paused, wiping stubbornly at the steadily increasing stream of tears falling down her cheeks.

"I'm a demigod, and there was nothing I could do. It snapped something in me, holding his body to me and feeling the moment his heart stopped beating. It was the moment I finally fully merged with my patroness. And with her powers and the grief flooding my system competing for my attention . . . My first act as a goddess was one of wrath. I killed Ra's, not that he stayed dead. The divinity that ran from me when I unleashed the anger and the pain and . . . Everything . . . It created the first Lazarus pit. I'm not the first to create one and likely won't be the last, but the one in Nanda Parbat was created that day. And it brought him back . . . But he couldn't see me anymore."

The ache in her chest was a familiar one. The same one she'd been living with for decades.

"So what happened next?"

Tim looked curious, and she couldn't blame him for asking. A little sob left her, and she struggled with the rest.

"Well . . . He tried to find me. Inevitably he gave up and settled down, but the Lazarus pit made him restless. Violent . . . Adrien ended up alone and forgotten. He died a painful death, and his soul was reincarnated- twice so far from what I know, though he always dies young. This is his third go 'round."

Bruce pursed his lips.

"And where is the now?"

Blue eyes, dark as night, met Lazarus green.

"Right behind you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF I WAS DYING TO GET THIS OUT 😭😭😭


End file.
